New Featured Artist: Virtual Self

𝐴𝑤𝑎𝑘𝑒𝑛 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑝𝑎𝑟𝑡𝑖𝑐𝑙𝑒 𝑚𝑦𝑡ℎ. Porter Robinson's concept project joins the Featured Artist project with 6 brand new tracks, including video! To celebrate, we're holding a special Olympiad beatmapping contest - check it all out!

Exploring sounds both new and old, Virtual Self is the brainchild of Porter Robinson, a wildly popular American musician fabled for his fusion of electronica, pop music and anime.

Headed by the enigmatic A.I personae of technic_Angel and Pathselector, Virtual Self poises itself as a heavily concept-driven musical project, drawing on icons, sounds and themes from the early 90's, 00's and more, all set to the visual overload of a high-tech and futuristic aesthetic.

There is much that we're still discovering about Virtual Self, but one thing is for sure - their tracks work for rhythm gaming like you wouldn't believe.

Check them out:

Quick warning: if you suffer from photosensitive epilepsy, please exercise caution when viewing these videos!

Particle Arts

Ghost Voices

ANGEL VOICES

Key

EON BREAK

All of the tracks from the self-titled Virtual Self EP are now available as Featured Artist tracks, as well as a bonus track Angel Voices, a 'technic_Angel' remix of Ghost Voices. As always, these maps (and their included videos) are 100% free for use in osu! mapping projects. Worry less, and map more!

Check them out over at their Featured Artist listing!

To celebrate, the organizers of the osu! Mapping Olympiad have organized a special concept-based beatmapping contest.

In the spirit of what Virtual Self represents, this special beatmapping contest will require entrants to create two beatmaps with differing styles that both showcase EON BREAK as a song.

How you choose to approach this is entirely up to you, and as one cannot hope to cross the first gate alone, entrants are allowed to collaborate with one other person for the contest.

The winning entry as judged by the Olympiad team will see both participants awarded with 4 months of osu!supporter, plus a Mapping Olympian badge and the highly-coveted Elite Mapper title.

Interested? Head on over to the contest listing to read the rules in depth and find out more!

We're excited to see what kind of incredible pieces the osu! community can churn out with Virtual Self's iconic sound!

As always, keep your eyes and ears peeled for future developments surrounding the Featured Artist project, since this is only the tip of the iceberg after all!

—Chaos, Ephemeral